1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention involves combustion devices, of the type including a combustion chamber within which is burned a fuel and oxidant mixture.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,176 there is dislcosed a method for reducing the ignition delay of fuel by heating the fuel to a temperature on the order of 1000.degree. F. prior to combustion. As developed in this aforementioned U.S. patent, the heating causes dissassociation of a greatly increased proportion of the fuel molecules and the resultant formation of radicals than exist at lower temperatures, by excitment of the fuel molecules to higher energy states.
As also described in detail in SAE Paper 850089 "Hypergolic Combustion in an Internal Combustion Engine", and SAE Paper 820536 "The Influence of Initial Fuel Temperature on Ignition Delay", incorporated herein by reference, the presence of a relatively high proportion (i.e., 3.times.10.sup.-5 %) of disassociated fuel molecules into radicals reduces the ignition delay dramatically, to effect only negligible delay in ignition and combustion. Such ignition and combustion delay reduction leads to many advantages, particularly in the context of internal combustion piston engines and allows control over the combustion process, as by controlling the rate of injection of the fuel into the combustion chamber.
However, the very elevated temperature at which this phenomenon occurs leads to difficulties in practicing such a method in that the various components must be designed to handle fuel at approximately 1000.degree. F. or higher. If the fuel is maintained at such elevated temperatures for significant periods of time coke is formed tending to clog the fuel passages.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement and method for achieving negligible ignition delay, i.e., hypergolic combustion, by the disassociation of a sufficient proportion of fuel molecules to enable hypergolic combustion as described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,176 and SAE papers, without the need for heating the fuel to very elevated temperatures.